


sisters and brothers

by hereforthehurts



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Big Brother Sokka (Avatar), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I jjust. love them so much, Katara (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Katara (Avatar)-centric, Nightmares, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Siblings, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Siblings, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, damn these kids got TRAUMA, they love each other so much guys uhm, water tribe siblings ...... yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29978310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereforthehurts/pseuds/hereforthehurts
Summary: The war had stopped, but it doesn't mean the nightmares do. And Sokka finds himself holding his sister in his arms like he always does.
Relationships: Katara & Sokka (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	sisters and brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a tumblr request !! I sincerely do hope they get therapy. Petition for Bryan and Mike to address this in the upcoming works. Please.

Sokka went to bed knowing the war had ended.  
  
  
He went to bed knowing that _he_ helped end it. That he was safe. That everyone he loved was safe.

  
  
  


When he woke up, it was all the same again. 

His surroundings were dark and cold, just like the countless nights he had spent sleeping in the open. He could hear hurried footsteps thumping against the hard, wooden floor, distant yelling, the smell of ashes and smoke. He remembered thinking _no, the war is over, this is just another bad dream and everything is okay._ He desperately tries to believe it.

But Katara was crying. 

  
  


_Katara was crying._

He jumped awake up from his sleep, thinking it was a nightmare. It wasn't. Katara _is_ crying, and he sat up and scrambled to get out of his covers, kicking out the mattress behind. " - 'Tara?" He slurs, reaching blindly to feel his sister's skin. "K'tara." 

Katara responded with a small, choked sob. 

" _Hey_ ," he sits up and scrunches his eyes for a moment, trying to adjust to the dark. "Hey. Katara, 'm here. I'm here, look." His hand meets his sister's and he holds onto her tightly, as if he might lose her if he doesn't. “Look. C’mere.”  
  
He pulls her closer, and his baby sister is in his arms once again. He pressed the back of her head into her chest gently and held her there for a moment, and that’s how he knows that they were safe. That they were okay, even if the world isn’t. They were okay as long as they had each other in their arms.  
  
“Nightmares?” Sokka murmurs. Katara nuzzles into him.  
  
He strokes her hair for a moment, remembering the footsteps, the yelling, the smell of ashes and smoke. How the sky turns dark above him, grey clouds rolling in, ashes in his eyes. “Yeah. Me too.”  
  
“You were in them,” Katara whispers, almost inaudibly.  
  
 _You were in mine, too,_ Sokka wanted to say, but he caught his words in his tongue before it slips out his mouth. Katara doesn’t need to know that. Katara doesn’t need to know that he dreams about dragging her tiny body in the snow, trying to outrun the gray clouds looming above them. Katara doesn’t need to know that he dreams about her calling his name, about a Fire Nation soldier taking her away. She doesn’t need to know that he dreams of letting go of Toph. She doesn’t need to know that he dreams about her not coming back from the battle, about her scarred body, covered in the same ashes that came on that winter day -  
  
  
  
He holds her just a little bit tighter.  
  
  
  
“You’re so _strong,”_ Katara’s voice breaks, hot tears soaking into his sleep robes. “You’re just - _so strong,_ and in my dreams, you were - “  
  
“ _Hey,”_ Sokka cuts her off before she could continue. “You’re right. I _am_ strong. And I’m right here.”  
  
Katara nods shakily. “I know.”  
  
“And it’s over,” he continues, “the war, everything about it, it’s over. And it’ll take some getting used to, but spirits, ‘Tara - we’ll be okay. You know we will. We always will.”  
  


  
He says it with so much confidence that even he began to believe it. 

And Katara cries. Katara cries, but she doesn’t lose her strength. She never does. His sister was so strong, stronger than anyone else in the four nations - Sokka believes it without a doubt. And he knows Katara sees it too, in him. He sees her strength while she looks after him, and she sees his when he fights for her. 

It has always been like that.  
  
  


  
“Hey.” Sokka spoke up, "I dream about you too, you know."

"I know," she mutters. "I hold you when you cry in your sleep."

"Oh." He shrugs. "I mean, you always know when I need a hug, so."

She laughs. "You too." 

"I guess we're even, huh?"

"Well, we're just sisters and brothers." 

_Yeah_ , Sokka silently agrees. _We are.  
  
  
_

Always were, always will be. 

  
  
  
  
  


That night, he held her as close as they had back when they were just little kids in their mother's arms. 

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda wanna write an Azula & Zuko version of this..... remember The Search comics ??? when Sokka gave Katara covers while she slept like the good older brother he is and Zuko just looked at Azula longingly ?? yeah . I think about that a lot.
> 
> these fuckign siblings give me pain smh


End file.
